More than one million people rose up on August 8 that year to protest an entrenched military-backed regime headed by General Ne Win that had wiped out the savings of many with a sudden demonetisation of the currency.

This is due, in part, to governments of old not adequately capitalising them, exacerbated by years of operating losses, and compounded by the erosion of capital through hyperinflation and associated recurrent currency redenominations and eventual currency demonetisation.

January 1980 states: The reasons that have led us to this conclusion are that the coin is obsolete in fact it has been so for a number of years and that demonetisation will enable us to recover the quite valuable stock of metal that is locked up in sixpenny bits.

Sudden demonetisation would, for a start, bring down the circulation of black money since you would have to explain to the authorities how you came into possession of the cash you wanted to exchange for new legal tender.